Happy Publication Day: 19th September 2019!

A truly epic publication day today — we have offerings from some titans of SFF, and a sneaky ICYMI for a title which published on Tuesday. All we can really say is that we’re spoilt for choice! Take your pick of these, you won’t go wrong.

Skyward, Brandon Sanderson

From Brandon Sanderson, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Reckoners series, Words of Radiance, and the internationally bestselling Mistborn series, comes the first book in an epic new series about a girl who dreams of becoming a pilot in a dangerous world at war for humanity’s future.

Spensa’s world has been under attack for hundreds of years. An alien race called the Krell leads onslaught after onslaught from the sky in a never-ending campaign to destroy humankind. Humanity’s only defence is to take to their ships and fight the enemy in the skies. Pilots have become the heroes of what’s left of the human race.

Spensa has always dreamed of being one of them; of soaring above Earth and proving her bravery. But her fate is intertwined with her father’s – a pilot who was killed years ago when he abruptly deserted his team, placing Spensa’s chances of attending flight school somewhere between slim and none.

No one will let Spensa forget what her father did, but she is still determined to fly. And the Krell just made that a possibility. They’ve doubled their fleet, making Spensa’s world twice as dangerous . . . but their desperation to survive might just take her skyward . . .

‘Compelling . . . Sanderson uses plot twists that he teases enough for readers to pick up on to distract from the more dramatic reveals he has in store’ AV Club

‘A terrifically tall tale, packaging the superhero action into compelling, punchy chapters that keep you reading. It’s a fast, feisty read with characters that are skilfully drawn, assassinations, gunfights, physics bending motorcycle chases and a world you can’t wait to hear more about’ SFX

‘Secrets intensify this ripping yarn, which is crammed with peril, thrills and snappy dialogue’ Daily Mail

‘Skyward is an adventure and a half that you won’t want to miss. Even hardcore Cosmere fans will enjoy the special mix of fantasy and sci-fi that unfolds as you watch Spensa learn what it means to be truly brave.’ TOR.com

‘Startling revelations and stakes-raising implications . . . Sanderson plainly had a ball with this nonstop, highflying opener, and readers will too’ Kirkus

A hard-SF saga set against the background of the birth of the solar system, and based on the latest planetary science: a human story of loss and salvation.

In the year 2570, a sleeper will wake . . .

In the mid-21st century, the Kernel, a strange object on a five-hundred-year-orbit, is detected coming from high above the plane of the solar system. Could it be an alien artefact? In the middle of climate-change crises, there is no mood for space-exploration stunts – but Reid Malenfant, elderly, once a shuttle pilot and frustrated would-be asteroid miner, decides to go take a look anyway. Nothing more is heard of him. But his ex-wife, Emma Stoney, sets up a trust fund to search for him the next time the Kernel returns . . .

By 2570 Earth is transformed. A mere billion people are supported by advanced technology on a world that is almost indistinguishable from the natural, with recovered forests, oceans, ice caps. It is not an age for expansion; there are only small science bases beyond the Earth. But this is a world you would want to live in: a Star Trek without the stars.

After 500 years the Kernel returns, and a descendant of Stoney, who Malenfant will call Emma II, mounts a mission to see what became of Malenfant. She finds him still alive, cryo-preserved . . . His culture-shock encounter with a conservative future is entertaining . . . But the Kernel itself turns out to be attached to a kind of wormhole, through which Malenfant and Emma II, exploring further, plummet back in time, across five billion years . . .

‘Grown up SF, a masterpiece from a star who shines as bright as any “mainstream” author’ Sun

‘Baxter is the natural heir to the hard-sci-fi crown of Arthur C. Clarke and he shares Clarke’s generous imagination and ability to extrapolate a plausible future technology from the cutting-edge theories of today. Imaginative appeal is what counts with Baxter and in that he delivers reliably’ Daily Telegraph

‘[Stephen Baxter] is one of the few still producing massive, fastidiously textured SF epics that engage the intelligence of the reader. Ideas come thick and fast, and an exhilarating sense of wonder is guaranteed’ Independent

‘The best SF writer in Britain’ SFX

‘The most important living science-fiction writer in the country’ The Times

Introducing a cast of unforgettable new characters, A Little Hatred is the start of a brand-new trilogy set in the world of the First Law which will have you gripped from the very start . . .

War. Politics. Revolution.

The Age of Madness has arrived . . .

The chimneys of industry rise over Adua and the world seethes with new opportunities. But old scores run deep as ever.

On the blood-soaked borders of Angland, Leo dan Brock struggles to win fame on the battlefield, and defeat the marauding armies of Stour Nightfall. He hopes for help from the crown. But King Jezal’s son, the feckless Prince Orso, is a man who specialises in disappointments.

Savine dan Glokta – socialite, investor, and daughter of the most feared man in the Union – plans to claw her way to the top of the slag-heap of society by any means necessary. But the slums boil over with a rage that all the money in the world cannot control.

The age of the machine dawns, but the age of magic refuses to die. With the help of the mad hillwoman Isern-i-Phail, Rikke struggles to control the blessing, or the curse, of the Long Eye. Glimpsing the future is one thing, but with the guiding hand of the First of the Magi still pulling the strings, changing it will be quite another . . .

Praise for A Little Hatred:

‘A tale of brute force and subtle magic set in a world on the cusp of an industrial revolution . . . a vivid and jolting tale’ Robin Hobb